cousin and I are rich, and we'll give you
a fete such as you never had before,--something to stimulate your
imaginations for that register. To-morrow (Sunday) you are bidden to the
Rocher de Cancale at two o'clock. Afterwards, I'll take you to spend the
evening with Madame la Marquise de las Florentinas y Cabirolos, where
we shall play cards, and you'll see the elite of the women of fashion.
Therefore, gentleman of the lower courts," he added, with notarial
assumption, "you will have to behave yourselves, and carry your wine
like the seigneurs of the Regency."

"Hurrah!" cried the office like one man. "Bravo! very well! vivat! Long
live the Marests!"

"What's all this about?" asked Desroches, coming out from his private
office. "Ah! is that you, Georges? I know what you are after; you want
to demoralize my clerks."

So saying, he withdrew into his own room, calling Oscar after him.

"Here," he said, opening his cash-box, "are five hundred francs. Go
to the Palais, and get from the registrar a copy of the decision in
Vandernesse against Vandernesse; it must be served to-night if possible.
I have promised a PROD of twenty francs to Simon. Wait for the copy if
it is not ready. Above all, don't let yourself be fooled; for Derville
is capable, in the interest of his clients, to stick a spoke in our
wheel. Count Felix de Vandernesse is more powerful than his brother, our
client, the ambassador. Therefore keep your eyes open, and if there's
the slightest hitch come back to me at once."

Oscar departed with the full intention of distinguishing himself in
this little skirmish,--the first affair entrusted to him since his
installation as second clerk.

After the departure of Georges and Oscar, Godeschal sounded the new
clerk to discover the joke which, as he thought, lay behind this
Marquise de las Florentinas y Cabirolos. But Frederic, with the coolness
and gravity of a king's attorney, continued his cousin's hoax, and by
his way of answering, and his manner generally, he succeeded in making
the office believe that the marquise might really be the widow of a
Spanish grandee, to whom his cousin Georges was paying his addresses.
Born in Mexico, and the daughter of Creole parents, this young and
wealthy widow was noted for the easy manners and habits of the women of
those climates.

"She loves to laugh, she loves to sing, she loves to drink like me!" he
said in a low voice, quoting the well-known song of Beranger. "Georges